Yay! Only took a week

Got through both Wing 's and my photos of the wedding. The biggest problem I had was keeping them in order. Turns out that Wing didn't have the time or date set right on either of the cameras he was using. Imagine how much fun I had going through and fixing that. Want the photos to tell a story, and also want it to be easier for the person making the photobook to put them in sequence.

I also impressed with with my "Mad Editing Skillz!". I don't mean "Photoshopping' as in smoothing skin, making men more muscular or thinner, or that, but seamless edits. One of the children at the wedding (as well as a few others) had hay fever and her nose kept running. So, I had to umm tidy that one up. Also, for some odd reason, Wing took the practice shot of an archway (with me in it describing to people how to stand to face Wing) perfectly, but when it came to the family portrait shots in there, he kept lopping off the top of the arch. Well, all the family portrait shots are in a nice arch. There were other things.

So, then I sat back and loaded them up as a slide show. I cast a very critical eye on them. Wow... impressive. Wing did question a few of my choices concerning his photos, until he saw that the ones that he thought were ok were blurry, or had a very unflattering look on one or more of the peoples faces.

Total count: 156 photos.

Note to self, ask Bob for some of his photos for the bride and groom. :)

Hopefully, it will be back in 4 weeks

A few months ago, I updated the firmware on my Canon 5DMkIII. Before the update, battery life was great. After the update, if I put a fully charged battery in the camera, and then put it in my gear back, when I went back to use it a week later, the battery was flat/dead. I found this odd, seeing as my 7D has been in the same gear bag for a month, with the batteries charged to full, and after a month, they were still at full strength.

I've charged the batteries, and left them out of the camera for a week, and they remain at full strength. Leave them in the camera, and they drain. Tried a brand new battery, same thing. I did find out there was a new firmware updated, so I flashed my camera's firmware to the new version, in hopes the problem had been rectified. No joy. *sigh*

So, I took my preciousssss to Camera Electronic, to have it shipped to Canon repair. Hoping I get a 4 week turn around, instead of the 6 week.

While I was at Camera Electronic, I got a video camera to use while riding my bike. I got it for two reasons. One, to give friends a 'tour' of my bike rides, and to record any problems I might have. Twice in as many months, when I've been out riding, I've had problems with dogs not on their leashes, or just now under their owner's control. I've been bitten, forced off a bike path, and the owners of said dogs just think it's cute. Now, I know there are bike riders out there who are rude, but I follow biking rules, stay on designated cycle lanes, and still almost get pasted by cars. So, I will have a video camera either on my bike helmet, or on handlebars.

The Babylon 5 Universe shrinks a little more

Fans of J. Michael Straczynski

I regret that I must convey the sad news that Michael O'Hare passed away today. He suffered a heart attack on Sunday and was in a coma until his passing this afternoon. This is a terrible loss for all B5 fans and everyone involved with the show wishes to convey their condolences to the O'Hare family. He was an amazing man..

Lime Trees aren't supposed to have freckles!

Did the weekly round of weeding and feeding all my potted plants. I got to my lime tree and was greeted with the fact that ants have set it up to their local aphid farm. Uh, no. Broke out the organic pesticide, sprayed the tree, including the trunk of it. Then fed the tree some really smelly plant food.

The pruning back of the fig tree worked a treat! The new branches are growing up not just out. Also, new branches on the pruned back ones.

The Star Jasmine has bud showing, so it got a good feed.

Last summer, even though I kept them in the shade and as moist as possible, the potted orchids didn't fare too well. I thought I had lost them all, but am please to say that some of the bulbs I thought were all dead are sprouting new blades. Still, one pot of them has nothing growing out of half of them. I'll probably transplant the survivors in a new pot. Also, if (maybe when) it gets that hot for that many consecutive day again, I will bring them indoors.

I survived my first Aussie Wedding shoot

It was one of the happiest wedding ceremonies in a church I have seen in ages. Very upbeat, no doom and gloom passages, but those with love and light. Wing was rather unsure of himself, although many have told him he could do this, but with my 'permission', we had Bob Litchfield (one helluva master photographer, and a good friend. My deepest thanks for all your support and advice. Muchly appreciated) ride shotgun. A bit of pre-game light tests, and we were ready to rock and roll.

Derek and Alexander were smiling so large, if it had been any wider, it would have met on the backs of their heads! Margaret was stunning. I know most people say that about brides, but she was just stunning. Julia was a beautiful bridesmaid and Anabelle.. seriously, she had to be cute, adorable and she was. Got many excellent photos in the church. I was complimented on my "Ninja Skills" of getting close in photos, but not being obtrusive.

Between Wing, Bob, and myself, I think we captured the moment, and moments, wonderfully.

No rest for the wicked, and we were off to the reception. Wing and I worked the room, getting photos of the beautifully decked out tables, the lovely flower arrangements, and then the guest seated at the tables. I managed to get some pretty good 'crowd reactions' from some of the speeches (Sorry, Alexander, that one of you is a keeper), and the wedding cake.

We kind of crawled into the house close to midnight, exhausted, but happy.

Now, the hard work begins.. in the process of transferring all the photos to the hard drive, to starts going through them. :)

More EF 24-70 MkI vs EF 24-70 MkII

Next test was seeing the difference between the two lenses using flash. Both images were taken with the 5DmkIII, ISO 50, f/4.0 1/320 a second.
The MkI does a good job, no doubt, but when compared to the MkII... The differences are clearly visible.


Softening of some of the details. Visible definition loss in the texture of the twine and fabric. The surface of the bells have lost some of their texture. There also appears to be color bleeding in the red areas into the yellow.



MkII - noticeable differences are the sharpness in the reflection in the lower of the two red rimmed mirrors. Also, the metal bells in this image are sharper. And the colors are more accurate, without blurring/bleeding.



There's no doubt that the MkII is a big improvement over the MkI. The improvements are clear when images are viewed side by side.

Canon EF 24-70 MkI vs Canon EF 24-70 MkII

I set up some items with bright colors and other items with textures. Some of the textures were obvious, others subtle. Made sure camera settings and where I was standing was the same for both series of test shots. I also took a photo of a grevillea shrub with both of the lenses, which to me was the decider.

EF 24-70 MkI


EF 24-70 MkII



The new lens, being 82mm vs 77mm means more light gathering is possible. Because of this, I did notice that the photos taken with the MkII were brighter, colors truer the subject and because of that sharper in detail, I also noticed that there was more differentiation in the shades of green on the images taken with the MkII. What struck me most was not only was the MkII visibly sharper, was the amount of chromatic aberration on the Original 24-70 vs the MkII

As you can see, the MkI 24-70.. this image selection is blurry, and has red/green chromatic aberrations.




MkII Not only is the image selection sharp and has zero aberrations.




Range of colors: Both of the original photographs had their levels adjusted the same amounts. What I noticed was the different shades of pink and the details in the MKii that was missing in the MkI.


MKl 24-70 - by comparison, the colors are flat. There is no shortage of chromatic aberrations.



MKii - More shades of pink, and the green grass isn't speckled with chromatic aberrations




The MkII is one helluva jump in Canon glass. It outperformed it's predecessor, hands down. Now, the only question is this: Is is significantly better than the new Tamron 82mm 24-70 to justify the higher cost?

Stay tuned! I will be hiring the Tamron to find out!